As a Life Storyteller, Dr Zabrina A. Bakar or better known as Sis Zabrina by her readers is the Author of Bestselling Motivational Book Series 'Life is an Open Secret'. Her motivational stories are based on true life daily happenings. Her writings are grounded in spirituality and the aim of her stories is for the reflection of minds and hearts of her readers. For her, Islam is easy to follow, simple, relevant and complete.
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Friday, May 16, 2008

Success Guaranteed Group- Membership Now Open!

Bismillaah

As Salaamu 'alaykum and peace to all,

Success Guaranteed Group- Membership Now Open! - A Motivational and Inspirational Story about Being in Group of People Who are Guaranteed Success

I was watching a multimedia video on the internet that day. It was an excellent presentation and had a lot of points for me to ponder about. The first thing that crossed my mind was to pray to Allaah, to reward abundantly the creative person who was responsible to record and then upload the video I just watched, whoever he or she is.

It was then I realized something- who is this ‘whoever’ person? Was it hard for him or her to produce such excellent work? Where did he get the idea from? Was he born talented that way, or people like me could acquire the skills? Does it cost a lot? What are the equipments needed?

Needless to say, I got curious. But I am not worried as Arnold Edinborough had said something good about curiosity once,Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.

So, as one of my efforts to ‘die nobly’, I decided to ask one of the prominent producers for Islamic lecture series- Brother Eddie from The Deen Show to help answer some of the questions I have. He was so kind to agree to spend sometime to talk about the-how and the-what of producing a short lecture show.

Below was my interview session with him.

Sister Zabrina (SZ): As Salaamu ‘alaykum Brother Eddie, we are honored to have you here. Could you share with the readers of Life Storyteller Blog a little bit of your background?

Brother Eddie (BE): Wa ‘alaykum salaam Sister Zabrina, and As Salaamu ‘alaykum to all the readers of Life Storyteller Blog. Well I was born in New York but raised in Chicago. I currently live in Chicago where I own and operate a Martial arts school teaching Gracie Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

SZ: MashaAllaah, I didn’t know that. Perhaps next time I can interview you on the benefits of Jiu-jitsu, inshaAllaah. But for now, could you tell us why do you start The Deen Show? Where do you get the idea from, how long has The Deen Show been around and who are your target audience?

BE: Sure, InshaAllaah. Actually, I started The Deen show about a year ago because I wanted to try a more interesting and charismatic way of presenting this wonderful way of life called Islam .A way that would keep the people interested and a way of presenting Islam that wasn’t too boring for the people but at the same time I didn’t want to compromise the tenants of Islam at all.

I got the idea during the time when I was filming the steps preparing for Hajj.

The audience I tried to reach is primarily non Muslims but at the same time, of course, The Deen Show now is reaching everyone. The objectives of the Show are to deliver the Message of Islam, to show Islam in it’s true light without all the cultural baggage and to clear all the misconceptions the public may have.

And elhamdulillaah the response has been great .I am getting support from people all over the world.

SZ: Elhamdulillaah. That’s fantastic, that you received support in such a way! Could you give us a hint on what motivates you to continue producing wonderful shows in your program? How frequent do you have a new show and how do get the ideas for the topics to produce in each of your show?

BE: It’s only with the help of Allah swt that I get the energy and motivation, sister. Its tough running your own business, maintaining a family and at the same time doing The Deen Show! But this just shows that when you want to please your Creator, He will make the things that seem hard in the beginning turned out to be easy and as for the reward, inshaAllah will be Great. About the ideas, well, I get the ideas really usually just kind of last minute. Sometimes, the idea just came at the spur of the moment even on the very day that we had scheduled to film. And for the frequency, we do a new show every week, elhamdulilah

SZ: SubhanAllaah, I bet that must be quite nerve-wrecking to have last-minute-spur-of-the-moment creativity avalanche! May I ask if an average person can actually start a show like this? Is it costly, must a person have a certain background like technical knowledge? How long does it take to produce one show including the recording process, editing? Do you work alone or with a team? What are the things that a person should know if he is interested to do a show like yours?

BE: Well, firstly, everyone who wanted to start in this type of journey, they should have the right intention and that is to solely please Allah swt in all that they do and to remember that this is a responsibility on all of us to convey the Message as Allah swt as what Allaah said in His Holy Book Chapter 16, verse 125- Invite all to the way of your Lord with Wisdom and beautiful adviceand as His messenger, our Prophet (may Allaah’s Blessings and Peace be upon him) did mention too in Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol. 4, p. 442, no. 667- “Convey from me, even if it be only a single verse.”

Now as far as the Show goes, you need to have proper equipment for example you must have someone with technical knowledge in all the areas you mentioned just now like a group of people willing to work and help you out. I have my brother helping me along with Brother Abdulrahman and Brother Idriz.

A person, along with all that I mentioned just now, plus having the right intention would have the motivation to keep moving forward and have a “yes I can” attitude. He, himself should also aimed to learn the Deen of Islam everyday, increasing his Knowledge and be willing to sacrifice long hours knowing that the reward for all his work is with Allah swt. Lots of Dua is also a key to success, especially Dua from Hajj, so, sister, if you haven’t been to Hajj yet, you start planning to go! And this advice goes for all the readers out there too!

SZ: InshaAllaah Brother Eddie, I have made the intention for Hajj, so, I hope that you to pray for me too so I am able to fulfill one of the pillars of Islam soon, inshaAllaah! As we all know, for every road to success, there are sure to be lots of challenges, so, what are the challenges you faced in producing The Deen Show? What are the biggest obstacles you have faced?

BE: Yes, sister, you are right about that! I have been trying to improve in all the areas that are needed, so that the Dawa can be more effective. Sometimes it is hard balancing everything out and having enough time in the day to do all these things but elhamdullillaah ‘ala Kulli hal, everything is all good!

SZ: As one of your loyal viewers for The Deen Show, I know that you have many prominent Muslims like Shaykh Yusuf Estes, Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, Imam Suhaib Webb, Brother Ali from Ummah Films and many more appearing in your shows. I am very curious on how you got the guests to appear on your show? How do you connect with them?

BE: Elhamdulilaah, I’ve had good help from my Brother Seraj from Almagrib institute who has arranged many guests to be on the Show. I’ve also traveled and met many Shaykhs and from there it’s gotten easier to get new Guests on the Show, elhamdulilaah.

SZ: SubhanAllaah, the value of connection! Could you share with the readers your future projects or perhaps guests for your show?

BE: Right now, we are working on making the Production of the Show much better, and we just got on a local station here in Chicago. We are also talking with a few other T.V stations that might InshaAllaah start airing the show too. We have a great line up of Guests coming up back to back in the next few weeks so make sure to stay tuned.

SZ: SubhanAllaah, mabrook Brother and mabrook The Deen Show! These new developments are really exciting. I am sure your viewers out there couldn’t wait for your new shows. Do you have any advice to Life is an Open Secret readers who are interested to follow your footsteps?

BE: One simple advice - Make Dua and get to work!

SZ: Absolutely! And any last general advice for readers of Life Storyteller Blog and Life is an Open Secret book?

BE: Sure, inshaAllaah! The advice I give is an advice and reminder to myself first and foremost and then to everyone else. And that is for all of us to set our focus on the ultimate prize which is Jenna.

This life will end and we will all be asked what we did with it, so let us start running more for Jenna, His Paradise and for the pleasure of our lord, our Creator, our Rabb, Allah swt. Let us work more to please Him and do what He has told us to do and this will bring us the true success in this life and the hereafter. Continue to let all your friends and family know about The Deen Show so that everyone along with future posterity’s can benefit. Thank you all for your support and forgive me for any mistakes that I’ve made along the way.

SZ: JazakAllaah khayran Brother Eddie for your time. May Allaah bless you, me and all of us with His Mercy, His Guidance, His Forgiveness, His Abundance and most of all to reward us all with His ultimate reward, His Garden. JazakAllaah khayran again for sharing with us. As Salaamu ‘alaykum warahmatullaah.

SubhanAllaah! Isn’t that simply amazing? I absolutely love the simple advice given by Brother Eddie- make Dua’ and get to work!

And what makes it more interesting is this - as a martial arts instructor who has passion for filming, he surely used the strengths and passion that Allaah has given him in His Way,you agree? SubhanAllaah.

He has reminded me of a beautiful verse from the Holy Quran,

“Let there arise out of you a group of people inviting to all that is good (Islam), enjoining Al-Ma‘roof (i.e. Islamic Monotheism and all that Islam orders one to do) and forbidding Al-Munkar (polytheism and disbelief and all that Islam has forbidden). And it is they who are the successful”[Aal ‘Imraan 3:104]

So, let us asked ourselves- are we doing what we should be doing to qualify us to belong to this group who is destined to be successful, or are we not?

Think About It.

Brother Eddie is the owner and founder of The Deen Show, one of the most successful and prominent internet-based Islamic lecture series shows. The Deen Show is based on the motto of Islam is a Way of Live and Brother Eddie believes firmly that ‘Thru Education We Are Building Tolerance - Elightment- Truth- Guidance'. He currently lives in Chicago, United States of America.

For your viewing pleasure, below are just two among the many interesting videos The Deen Show has. The clips are two parts of Takin It To The Street! Show. May we all take heed, inshaAllaah.